The most common applications of aerial footage.

September 22, 2017 | Victoria Shmakova

Real estate drone photography

When you are trying to sell a real estate property, what is the foremost important element in marketing it to potential buyers? Of course, outstanding images that can show the property with the land in the whole beauty. Many drone pilots have already picked up on this fast growing trend and offering their services to take aerial photography and create aerial videos. All that you need is a drone with a high-resolution camera and some photography skills.

Construction and land development

The construction industry is huge, and the use of drones for construction surveillance, site documentation and monitoring, construction planning and marketing is increasing very fast. The main reason for drone use in the construction is their relatively low cost. It is much more expensive to hire an inspection engineer to inspect the entire structure or land. Drones also opened a great opportunity for the construction industry that consists in showing the progress of the construction work to the customers and investors using attractive aerial images.

Wind turbine and solar installation aerial inspection

Drones became a very useful tool in the wind industry. Wind turbines are generally very tall and it is very costly for a person to inspect their state. On another hand, drones can reach to the top of the wind turbine and take high-resolution aerial pictures of it that engineers can further inspect conclude on the necessary maintenance.

Power lines aerial inspection

Power lines especially high voltage ones need a frequent inspection. If they break, many houses and offices can be left without electricity and something when lines are very long, it is difficult to find the place of the damage. Before helicopters were used for these purposes; however, drones have already started replacing them offering a cheaper and more flexible alternative.

Oil and Gas aerial inspection

The island to pump oil and gas are usually located in remote places and are difficult to reach for humans. Thus it is very expensive and time-consuming to hire a person for regular inspections and maintenance. Here drones are great to use for oil spill tracking, pipeline monitoring, and environmental assessment.

Drone applications in farming and agriculture

In this industry, drones have been used for farming management that includes tools for measurement, observation, real-time crops monitoring, and automated planting. This concept is called Precision Agriculture . Usage of drones in agriculture saves tons of time for the farmers and increases the chances of growing healthy crops. For this type of work, you would need special drones equipped with infrared cameras and sensors.

Mining

Mining sites usually spread over a big area of land and need to be monitored and surveyed frequently to see the progress of the work on the mine. To hire machinery and special personnel to perform these tasks require time and high capital investment. Drones have proven to be a cheaper and faster alternative that can deliver results in few minutes. Drones are also used in mines for mineral exploration, surface stability monitoring, and stockpile management.

Mapping

Mapping was one the areas where commercial drones have been introduced almost the first. Before drones, satellites and helicopters were used for the gathering of data of the Earth’s surface. Drones can do the same job for a lower price and shorter time with even more accurate modeling. With the continuous growth in the drone technology, the use of drones in geographic information system (GIS) mapping, photogrammetry, cartography geophysical mapping, and surveying continue to increase as well.

Safety monitoring

When there is a big gathering of people during a festival, concert or any other event, it is very difficult to monitor what is happening on the ground. And helicopter services are very expensive. Drones offer a cheaper and more flexible solution for aerial monitoring in real-time.

Public safety

Oftentimes in a case of a disaster, it is very difficult for a person to see what is happening and a helicopter might take time to reach the place. Here drone became very handy. They are used by firemen and police departments in several countries already including Russia and USA.

Cargo

Since Amazon started to create its own cargo drones and talk about creating special regulations for transporting small parcels using unmanned aircraft, many postage services including DHL decided to implement drones in their businesses as well. Drones are very useful for transporting small cargos for short distances in remote locations. DHL has even tested it on a flight to an island in Germany.